2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz SSID names and 2.4 Ghz interference.

[Mopower]

I have a customer that has been having problems with their wi fi. They had a 2.4Ghz only router. They started having Netflix streaming issues and issues with web browsing on cell phones being very slow when connected to wi fi.

They told me that ever since their neighbor moved in next door they have had these issues. Well I remember installing service at the neighbor and the neighbor's router is only about 30 ft from this customers living room.

The first time this customer called about problems I made sure their router was using a different non overlapping channel.

They continued to have problems so they bought dual band router but were still having the same issues. I looked at the router and they had named the 2.4 and 5 Ghz networks the same SSID. I was not seeing the 5Ghz on any of their devices. When I put a _5G at the end of the SSID the devices starting seeing the SSID for the 5 Ghz only. So I connected all their devices to it and told them to see if they still have these problems.

So the question is on these dual band routers when you name the SSIDs the same name is the device suppose to pick which band is best? In this case even changing the channel of the 2.4 didn't fix the issue so I didn't want any of their devices connecting to it and hard set them to connect to the 5ghz. Am I right in my thinking? I really hope this fixes their issues. I told them if it does not I'd have to come back and hard wire their TV's. Which I really don't want to do. Pain in the ass.

 

[nomas]

In my experience, the devices will pick the strongest signal it detected upon connection request. With 5GHz RF propagation inherently weaker than 2.4GHz, the latter will almost always win out. So, the best bet is to do exactly what you have done. Assign the 5GHz WiFi with a different SSID, and explicitly choose it on the devices.

 

[dar124]

So the question is on these dual band routers when you name the SSIDs the same name is the device suppose to pick which band is best? In this case even changing the channel of the 2.4 didn't fix the issue so I didn't want any of their devices connecting to it and hard set them to connect to the 5ghz. Am I right in my thinking? I really hope this fixes their issues. I told them if it does not I'd have to come back and hard wire their TV's. Which I really don't want to do. Pain in the ass.

I'm curious about this too. I recently upgraded to a dual band router and as I was setting it up, wasnt sure about how to name the 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz bands, so I named them both the same. My thought was that the device would just pick the appropriate band to connect to. It appears that our phones always connect to the 5 GHz, but I guess it would make it easier to tell for sure if one of them had a "_5G" after it!!!

 

[Ragenrok]

I find on my phone that 5G works poorly unless in the same room as my router (mabey my router sucks lol) But unless im in the same room my 2.4G tends to give me same speed or even faster than the 5G.

 

[Ocellaris]

I've seen mobile devices treat XYZ and XYZ_5G as the same SSID automatically. If you need to differentiate them, I would give them names with more differentiation.